"You should blog" they say....

Once John and I were able to get back onto the road, we decided to check out some of Prague. One of the frustrations of a trip like this is that it's realy just an overview, a preview, of a very large stretch of land. So getting to spend even just an hour or two in a city is a treat.    

We hadn't done much research prior to our trip (there's just so much planning involved already), but I knew about the oldest working astrological clock in Prague. It was hot out, but we decided to make the trek into the old town area, find parking (not that hard with a Mini) and walk over to the clock.  

I love looking at the old architecture - buildings that were made by craftsman and designed by architects that wanted to have their name behind grand buildings. Europe is clearly the place to see these types of buildings and I had made a great choice in going to Paris prior to starting this adventure. I saw some amazing buildings while walking down the streets, but I was completely awestruck when I saw the Louvre. I decided not to follow the masses and take the subway stop that leads you to the front where the glass pyramid is, but rather took another train that brought me up behind the building. Once out of the station, I literally cried. I was wow'ed by the actual building before I got a chance to see the crowds and all the famous views. I spent a good 30 minutes just walking though the side entrance and peeking around that area before coming into the main courtyard.

Now that we were in Prague, I was starting to get used to the granduer of the buildings. I was expecting (oops, there's that word again) the clock to be huge and glorious. After trudging through lots and lots of tourists, we saw a group just standing in one area of the square. Assuming that was it, we pushed through the crowd and found... a litle clock.  Only a few stories tall, and only 10'ish feet off the ground, it was much smaller than the photos make it look. We were there shortly before noon (hence, the crowd), so we waited in the sunny heat with all the tourists pushed up against each other to watch the clock go off. After a long time (only 4 minutes), it struck. It rang, the characters moved, things happened. Afterwards, a sparse few in the crowd clapped and one guy nearby us said "was that it"? To me, coming off of a night of zero sleep and much emotional turmoil, it was fantasic!

It's so easy to be underwhelmed with what you see when you don't have an understanding of it. Before we visited the clock, I had found out that it was built in 1410 and that it was the oldest working clock of its type. I'm glad I had looked a bit of that up so I was able to have some appreciation for what I was seeing. I'm sure there will be so much on this trip that I will see and not have enough understanding of it to appreciate it.